Apjati rejects decree on new minimum capital

JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Labor Export Companies (Apjati) has rejected a 1999 ministerial decree requiring labor export companies to have Rp 1 billion in minimum capital.

"None of the 425 labor export firms grouped in the association will comply with the decree because it will be ineffective in providing protection for workers," the Apjati chairman, Abdulla Umar, told The Jakarta Post by phone on Saturday.

Abdulla was responding to a manpower ministry statement on Friday announcing that the decree would take effect on May 20.

The decree was issued by former manpower minister Fachmi Idris in August 1999, to tighten administrative requirements for companies wishing to acquire labor export licenses.

The previous ruling, issued in 1996, required labor exporters to have assets worth Rp 375 million and a bank deposit of Rp 75 million in the name of the manpower minister.

The deposits were designed to finance troubled workers overseas.

The new inflated deposit of Rp 1 billion is designed to filter and limit labor export companies to ones which are the most credible.

Abdulla criticized the government for failing to detect the key problem in labor export, saying both Minister of Manpower Bomer Pasaribu and Director General of Labor Placement Din Syamsudin knew little about the labor export business.

"Bomer is unprofessional despite his track record in labor affairs. And Din should go back to the Hidayatullah Islamic Teaching Institute because he actually knows nothing about the labor business," he said.

He questioned the fact that if the new deposit minimum was intended to limit the number of labor export companies, then why did the ministry issue some 250 licenses to new labor export companies in the past six months.

"The two should turn down requests for new licenses if they are committed to enforcing the new decree," he said.

Abdulla said companies should be gauged on how well they train their workers before sending them abroad rather than the amount of cash they can store in the bank.

"Huge assets are not a guarantee that workers will be well trained and given better protection overseas. Many big companies have also sent workers without standard training," he said.

He said it would more applicable if the government tightened its supervision of labor exports and monitored the quality of workers sent and their protection overseas.

"Companies found guilty of violating the standard training procedures and legal and insurance protection must be given harsh sanctions," he said.(rms)